"When we look at modern man, we have to face the fact that modern man

 suffers from a poverty of the spirit - which stands in glaring contrast

 to his scientific and technological abundance.  We learned to fly the

 allied birds.  We've learned to swim the seas like fish.  And yet, we

 haven't learned to walk the Earth like brothers and sisters!" - Martin

 Luther King
     
     Yes, "there's trouble in River City"! There's a malady raging right 
here in America!  It's a malady even more threatening than atomic 
proliferation, environmental pollution, biological warfare,  or killer-
diseases such as AIDS.  It's more dangerous because this particular malady 
spawns all of the above.

     The malady is ignorance!  It's realized, of course, that this is said 
at the risk of sounding arrogant.  Actually social scientists have a much 
kinder term.  Their word is "cultural lag"

     We must recognize, however, that the water runs deeper here.  And, 
though ignorance floats on the surface, it's what lurks beneath that truly 
deserves our attention.  Just as we've heard that behind every great man, 
there's a woman, behind ignorance there's "Old Mother Greed".

     In American Society greed is often excused as being an unalterable 
aspect of "human nature", or is actually valued as an essential tool which 
enhances and encourages achievement.  Both are dangerous as well as 
fallacious assumptions.  It's the central purpose of this paper to 
demonstrate how institutionalized greed can cloud our thinking, and distort
our perception of reality; thus opening the door to those forces which 
greatly endanger human survival.

     The goal here is also to raise the hope that we human beings might yet 
learn to differentiate between self-interest and greed before it's too late!
That ludicrous rationalization, believed by many, that someone possessing 
100 times the wealth of an average worker deserves it because he earned it, 
must be confronted.  We should not allow our love-affair with incentive to 
drift into overkill, and blind us to reality!

     Much has been spoken, and written of the "cultural lag".  That term, 
of course, refers to mans mastery of technology outpacing his growth in 
social understandings.  That technology has created the massive 
environmental threats.  Obviously, social science must rise to the occasion,
 or the unthinkable will happen! 

At present, many ingrained and interlocking aspects of human culture stand 
in the way  of the necessary progress of social science.  (Social science is
basically synonymous with human understanding and cooperation)  This writing
will seek to sort out and examine the many  cultural traits and institutions
which appear to block or impede the growth of social science.  Religion, 
economics, politics, education, recreation, are all part of the picture, and 
the problem.